Size of Farming Operation Dictates Type of Labor

(WASHINGTON, DC) Farms of different sizes rely on different mixes of labor. According to the Economic Research Service (ERS), the five years that ended in 2017, shows that the principal operator and the operator’s spouse provided most of the labor hours (75 percent) used on small farms. Small farms are defined as those with annual gross cash farm income under $350,000. That share fell to 44 percent on midsize farms ($350,000 – $999,999), 19 percent on large farms (between $1 million and $5 million), and two percent on very large farms ($5 million or more). Large and very large farms relied most on hired labor, which provided between 64 and 69 percent of the labor hours. By comparison, hired labor provided about 12 percent of labor hours on small farms and 39 percent on midsize farms. Small and midsized farms are more numerous but account for less production overall. Overall, principal operators and their spouses provided 47 percent of the labor hours used on U.S. farms between 2013–17, while hired labor provided 35 percent, and other operators and other unpaid family labor provided another 9 percent of total hours, the same share as contract labor (workers employed by firms hired by the farm). contract laborers were important on very large farms, contributing over 27 percent of all labor hours.